OCR Text |
Show TURKS HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IN TRAP Russians Have Outflanked Great Bodies of Turkish Troops. Petrograd, via London, Feb. 20, 10:44 p. m. Grand Duke Nicholas, commander of the Russian forces in the Caucasus, has left Tiflies for Er-zerum. Er-zerum. Petrograd, Feb. 20, 2:25 a. m., via London, Feb. 21. The Russians are pressing the advantage gained at Er7erum. On' the right along the Black Sea coast, by the co-operation of the sea and land forces they are driving tho Turks from ono position after another to the east of Trebizond and active operations against that important im-portant seaport arc expected soon. In tho last two days the Russians have occupied Witde (Widje) and pressed forward ten or twelve ralleB westward. The fleet has destroyed several shore batteries and by keeping keep-ing well in advance of the land forces for-ces and by destroying bridges over several streams in the path of retreating re-treating Turks has rendered their retreat re-treat more difficult The fleet has been working so close to the shore that the warships have been reached by rifle fire from the Turkish troops. On the left flank, after the occupation occu-pation of Koph, the Russians pushed on to Mush and Achtat, the latter on the north shore of Lake Van From Koph to Mush, 60 miles over mountain roads, they fought battles and occupied Mush by storm. Turks Flee, i The Turks fled southward to Dar- bekir, the next objective of the Rus-i Rus-i siaus. Once In the possession of i Dalrbekir it is only a day's march to ; the Bagdad railway, the last remain-. remain-. ing communication into Syria. The rapid Russian offensive beyond Erzerum, it Is believed here, makes ' it probable that the retreat of the Turkish corps operating along the Black sea coast, and of those troops which were active in the Mush district dis-trict before the Russian occupation will be entirely cut off and that tho main Turkish armies will be surrounded. sur-rounded. This fate has already overtaken the Tbirty-fourth division of tho Tenth corps, which was ordered from Olti to 'Erzerum before the fall of the fortress As telephonic communication communica-tion between this group of Turkish forces and the garrison at Erzerum had been entirely destroyed by the Russians, the Thirty-fourth division marched sorenly into Erzerum without with-out suspicion that the fortress was then about to surrender. These troops reached Erzerum from the west at the very moment that the Deve-Boina line of forts fell into Russian Rus-sian hands and the army which they had come to assist was In full retreat. The road over which they had passed was instantly occupied by Russian cavalry and, as they were completely surrounded there was no alternative but to surrender with arms, equipment equip-ment and artillery. It is regarded as almost inevitable that the Turkish corps retiring along the Black Sea coast under the destructive de-structive fire of the Russian fleet and the pressure of the Russian armies win De caugnL in me same son oi trap, as tho Turkish troops falling back from Widje to Jumlsh Dhaneh still have a greater distance to go than the Russian troops which are advancing ad-vancing from Erzerum to cut them off. On the Turkish right flank where the ninth corps is operating, the Turks find themselves in the same precarious position since all the roads of retreat to the north are gradually falling under Russian control. con-trol. The retreat of the Turkish armies arm-ies everywhere Is impeded by deep suow and the difficult character of the country. They are -without food and lacc war supplies and there seems to be little possibility of their offering even temporary resistance of any strength to the Russian advance. |